Imperium
by Warringer
Summary: This is an AU set in my Back Home multiuniverse. Vorlons and Shadows act faster than anyone thought and the remenants of the Interstellar Commonwealth are forced to leave their home universe. They get from one war into another...
1. Chapter 1

Imperium

by Warringer

Prolog

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Marcus John Ryan closed his eyes as he stared out of the window of The Office and into the deep darkness of the Atlantic Ocean.

How had it all come to this, he wondered for the n-th time over the last few days. Just fifty years ago something similar had been prevented with the intense diplomatic work of than President Hikaru von Bismark.

But now even the diplomatic heavy weight of von Bismark hadn't been able to get the Jurians and the Minbari back to the table and every last hope for an, even uneasy peace like in the last fifty years, had been abandoned when Galactic Federation and Galactic Union fleets began to invade each other as well as the space of the Interstellar Commonwealth that had grown to cover a good fifty percent of the Galaxy.

But even with this size in planets, the fleets of the Commonwealth had only been able to barley keep the attackers in bay.

Of course both the Shadows and the Vorlons had used the opportunity.

The existence of both the Shadows and the Vorlons had been announced to the Government fifty years ago during the Valtarai crisis that nearly had ignited the Galactic War by both Admiral Masaki and Nathan.

He turned back around and looked at the redheaded bombshell of a woman standing in his office. She was the self proclaimed greatest scientific genius of the universe and there were not many people in the Commonwealth who didn't think that she was.

And she was the head behind the project that wouldn't let the Commonwealth win the war, but just plain survive. Nothing else was possible any more, not with Shadow and Vorlon fleets closing in on the Sol system after the destruction of just about any Commonwealth planet they had attacked.

It was grotesque and sadistic that both of the so called First Ones had reduced their slipstream speed so much that they would need a day to get to Sol from Vega, the last major system of the Commonwealth, now just another uninhabitable system among many others.

"Are you really sure, Professor?" he asked after a while." We need you here."

"I am sure, Mr. President," Professor Washuu Habuki answered and walked up to the large windowpane of The Office. "My sister needs my help to beat some sense into our other sister."

She sighed.

"And after that, we need to take care of their wayward children."

Ryan snorted and shook his head, sitting heavily in his seat.

"If there is much left of them after we left."

Washuu smiled sadly.

"I am pretty sure that you can only hit just about half of their worlds."

"I think that is more than enough to show them that we are not going down with a whimper."

They were silent for a few moments until a holographic projection of Merlin, an old man in the robe of a British druid, appeared in The Office.

"_Mare Serenitatis_ and _Elysian Fields_ have reached their positions on the solar poles, Mr. President."

Ryan nodded and for a moment he wondered if his grandfather had felt like this when he had been the President of the United States of America and had ordered to close of the US after the biological attacks more than a hundred years ago.

"Good," he said and leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes and than began to slowly massage his eyes.

"Send the Doomsday Signal," he finally said.

Washuu shook her head tiredly and closed her eyes as she faded away in a teleportation to her private ship. Merlin on the other hand nodded and likewise faded away.

"So this is how it all ends," he said tiredly and for a moment his eyes locked themselves at the upper drawer of his desk, where he knew his PPC. It would make things easy for him. Too easy.

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As millions upon millions of slipstream paths were moving towards Sol, the blue-white sphere surrounding the entire system was glowing lightly. The massive Terra-Nova shield, designed to shield the entire system from attacks currently held strong where the solar wind was coming in contact with the interstellar medium, creating a chaotic area of nearly five AU thickness.

With that the Terra-Nova shield was a blue-white wall of nearly five AU thickness. But even it was not perfect. Vega had shown as much. The Terra-Nova shield of Vega had only held barely twenty four hours against the massive firepower of the Shadow and Drakh fleets attacking the system, enough to evacuate nearly two billion Ferrons to Sol.

Now Sol was the sole hope of more than seventy billion people of more than two hundred races with nearly five million civilian and two hundred thousand military ships of the Interstellar Commonwealth. But not only them. About another one hundred million people of even more races had fled from the Union and the Federation, seeking refuge at Sol.

Now the system covering shield's glow intensified and slowly the surface began to buckle and weaver, chaotic swirls twice the size of Jupiter. The color slowly changed to blue and than circled slowly through the entire spectrum of the visible colors before drifting into Infrared and intensifying. But even as the color drifted away from the visible light, the shield remained opaque.

Than like a thunderclap, the shield returned into the visible spectrum, drifting back to the normal blue-white and going back to its beginning intensity. And the intensity dropped. As the blue-white glow faded away completely, it left behind empty space and a single Space Jet moving away from the perimeter of the Shield.

Aboard the Space Jet, Washuu looked at the piece of space that had once held the Sol System.

"Take care," she said, a tear falling from her cheek." I'm going to come after you in a few years. And woe is you if you don't look after my daughter, Tenchi."

As she manipulated the controls of the red Space Jet, several hundred thousand Jump Bombs detomated all over the galaxy, destroying Vorlon and Shadow planets and whole systems, as well as the Minbari and Juraian homeworlds.


	2. Chapter 2

Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 1

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Space above Earth was packed. Hundreds of thousands of ships hung above the planet in various orbits, taking care to keep away from the three large constructs that connected the immense Orbital Ring with the planet below.

The Orbital Ring had been finished ten years ago and even Minbari and Jurians had been forced to congratulate Earth for the creation of this massive construct in less than ninety years. Even through it had been finished, the large numbers of Von Neumans, self replicating machines that had only been created to build this structure, were still busy to expand the structure, building large shipyards and other complexes for various forms of industry.

Even as the conventional traffic had come to a stop and the number of refugees being placed on the numerous Solar Trees as ships docking with the large Orbital Ring, the Von Neumans had continued to do their work.

Now many of them stopped, directing their powerful sensory systems out into the vastness of space. Neither of them had really felt the transfer like the biological beings in the Sol System and as such they were the first to recognize that there were more differences between the new position of the Sol System than most had thought there would be.

"We are screwed," Arthur noted and nearly let go of the massive four kilometer long structural element he was carrying towards the Sector Blue-Five shipyard.

"Not more than we usually are," was the comment of his next colleague, Marvin, and welded his own element to the hull of the Orbital Ring.

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Admiral Musashi of the Habanake clan, currently head of the Interstellar Commonwealth Navy, rubbed his neck as he glared at the massive hologram that hovered in the center of the large Control Room aboard of Shabazza, who still served as the Naval Command Center of the Interstellar Commonwealth.

"Report," the Shin'bi called out into the large room, covered by numerous computer and other stations.

"A large number of unknown objects have just passed Neptune Orbit," someone called out into the room." Currently they are moving at point zero five Cee, the current course keeps them away from all planets, but they will enter a hyperbolic orbit."

Musashi's wings twitched slightly as he walked closer towards the holographic display in the mostly empty center of the Control Room, measuring ten meters in diameter.

"Zoom," he called out, through he already had given a short mental command over his network implant that was considered standard in Commonwealth service.

The holographic display zoomed towards the piece of the Neptune orbit the unknown objects had just passed.

"Numbers?" he asked out loud.

"Several hundred thousand objects," was the answer," We are trying to get optical data."

Musashi closed his eyes for a moment, tying to ignore the bad feeling and the growing headache as he glared at the unknown objects that had been moving through this piece of space even before the transfer had deposited the Sol System here.

A strange whisper replaced the headache for a brief moment, but as he tried to focus on it, it disappeared and with it the headache. The bad feeling remained.

Musashi breathed in deep. He knew that he had very slight psychic abilities, but any try to train and strengthen this ability had been wasted. No one even knew what this ability really was only that it was there. One time he was able to feel the minds of others for the briefest moments, while at other times he could move small objects with his mind. But the ability was unstable at best.

Maybe this was one of these moments. Moments he had learned to ignore with mental discipline. But his feelings had saved his life more than once.

"Something is not right," he said after a moment, staring at the leading object, as it kept at least a lightsecond distance to the other objects. "Is this a real time feed?"

"Yes, sir," came the answer." Beholder Group One-Sigma-Two."

New data from the feed was added to the hologram and his eyes narrowed again, his tail lashing out behind him.

"Defiantly not natural," he noted as a portion of the objects broke away from the others." Designate the objects. Lead Object as Sigma One, trailing group as Sigma Alpha, the breaking group as Sigma Beta."

The display changed again. The main group of objects was now surrounded by a light orange cloud, while the breaking group was surrounded by a dark orange cloud.

"Sigma Beta increases velocity at 5 gee. Course projection brings them towards Mars."

Musashi looked up and towards one of the technicians manning the various stations.

"Do we have any ships in that area for close up recon?"

"_Farseer_ and _Legolas_ are in the area."

On the display a pair of blue contacts appeared, bearing the name of the ships as well as their classes. _Farseer_ was an Block III refit of the Nadesico class, were as the _Legolas_ happened to be a Block II Warlock.

"Get _Farseer_ on Sigma One. _Legolas_ should get a closeup on Sigma Beta."

Both contacts representing the two IC ships changed their courses after a few moments, before they disappeared for the tiniest amount of time before reappearing close to either Sigma One and Sigma Beta and moving closer to get better optical images.

For a moment, Musashi checked his chronometer. The transfer had happened not even half an hour ago. And if his feeling was right, they had switched the pot of boiling water for the frying pan.

"Keep heightened state of Alert," he noted." I want the fleet ready for action. Are there any reports of any problems in the fleet?"

"All Victories, Bahamuts and Ancients report problems with their Quantum based weaponry. There are also a few reports of unconsciousness for several psychically active crew members."

Musashi nodded.

"Ryo-ohki, _Kamidake II_ and _Dark Knight_?"

"Nothing from Ryo-ohki, but _Kamidake_ _II_ and _Dark_ _Knight_ reports full combat readiness."

"Ryo-ohki is most likely devouring carrots," came from somewhere in the Control Room, resulting in a slight break of the tension in the room, through Musashi glared into the general direction of who ever had said that.

Musashi himself was thinking the same however. Ryo-ohki was most likely working her way through a carrot patch.

He glared back at the display. _Farseer_ and _Legolas_ had moved in position and a small antenna symbol showed that they were transmitting life feeds from their sensors.

A pair of holographic displays appeared above the main hologram and it seemed like most of the people in the Control Room had stopped breathing. One was showing Sigma One and the other several units of Sigma Beta.

The best way to describe Sigma One was to say that it was beautiful. A large object in gold, blue and green, looking more like it belonged to a museum than moved through space. And the visual display betrayed nothing about its size that was overlayed into the display. It was more than a thousand kilometers long and massed several hundreds of trillion tons, if not vastly more.

The display of Sigma Beta on the other hand was more the birth of the worst nightmares that had plagued spacers for thousands of years in the past. Large green bodies shimmering in the light of the far sun, moving like they were alive, bringing forth the stories of creatures that preyed on space ships and ate them and their crews.

"In the dark grim future of the 40th millennium, there is only war," the ominous voice of Shabazza was suddenly heard.

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Captain Ma'lel B'kar swallowed as he looked at the holographic display in the center of Command and Control of _Legolas_. What he saw there was something that could have come from the worst nightmares of most spacers of the Galaxy.

"Madre de Dios," he heard his second in command, Commander Alehandro Schmidt, say and see him cross himself.

"Quite," B'kar said after a while.

B'kar was Nasarian, the member of an old race that was always described as elves by the Terrans. And he was following most of the stereotypic shapes and forms of most elves in Terran fantasy literature. Tall, good looking and a certain agelessness. But the Nasarians were far from being the elves from literature. They had the same problems any race in the Galaxy had and there were no magical or psychic abilities ever reported. And most Terrans that meet the Nasarians were calling them 'British'.

"Those things are alive," one of the technicians said suddenly and with a good measure of horror in his voice." All of them."

"How many are there again," Schmidt asked a moment later, staring at the display where one of those ship creatures closed massive yaws and leg like extremities.

"At least two hundred thousand," was the reply." And the smallest is at least two kilometers long."

B'kar noted that Schmidt crossed himself again and closed his eyes, muttering a prayer under his breath.

"Ten of them are altering their course! They are on an intercept course with us!"

B'kar breathed in deep and forced himself to remain calm, as she brushed his long brown hair away from his face.

"Distance and speed."

"Distance, fifteen thousand. Velocity increasing at ten gee. They enter engagement range in thirty seconds."

B'kar breathed in deep.

"Shields on stand by. Prepare firing solutions for all systems. Query at Shabazza about engagement rules."

Nods came from everywhere around him and he closed his eyes again, even as a cold shudder swept down his back.

'Creator give me strength,' he thought as he breathed in deep and opened his eyes.

"We are ordered to let them have the first shot," the voice of the communication technician came and B'kar nodded.

"Distance?"

"Distance, ten thousand, Velocity still increasing at ten gee."

"Raise shields," B'kar ordered and he through his feet he could feel how the powerful reactors of his Warlock feed their energy into the three different shielding generators and from there into the emitter grids inside the thick armor of his ship.

"Fire solutions?"

"We got solutions for all weapons."

"They are firing!"

B'kar looked up and onto the display that had changed to a tactical overlay. The ten ships had changed to a red color and were very different in size and shape.

And now they had fired what looked like a cloud of torpedoes and other forms of projectiles as well as fast moving fighters.

"E-Web and Interceptors to Armageddon Mode and launch fighters," B'kar ordered.

Immediately the Interceptors reacted and even the smaller Particle and Plasma weapons of the Warlock began to fire at the incoming ordonance. Some where destroyed, some were able to move through the plasma bolts nearly unscratched and impacted in the forward shields of the _Legolas_.

"Shield stress at eighty percent."

B'kar kept himself from gritting his teeth and tried to remain calm. Sure, his ship could take more than that, but he was sure that those bio-ships had just fired a probing attack and could put out much more firepower.

"Fire at will. Concentrate the fire on the lead vessel."

Now the weapons of the Warlock were answering the first attack of the strange bio-ships. The massive Spinal Particle Cannons of the Warlock fired, causing a bright glowing lance of light to stand between the Warlock and the bio-ship, burrowing into the thick frontal armor.

Missiles were launched from the pods of the Warlock and after the initial acceleration phase, released their kill vehicles. But the unknown ships seemed to have a countermeasure as some of their small fighters managed to move between the kill vehicles and their target causing the heavy warheads to detonate and making hot white suns appear in space between the _Legolas_ and her targets.

B'kar now did grind his teeth as the G.O.D. cannon didn't seem to have any effect on the bio-ship as it continued to move through space. Even as the other weapons concentrated on the massive bio-ship there was little damage visible.

The bio-ships fired their next salvo and this one was far more powerful than their first salvo and the amount of firepower was staggering.

"Shield stress at one hundred twenty percent. Layer one is failing!"

"Cycle shield!" was the next order," Plot a retreating course to Triton Station. Order all fighters to retreat to Triton as well."

B'kar knew that he couldn't win this. All he could do was hope that he had enough time for the Slipstream Drive to come up and get them to Triton.


	3. Chapter 3

Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 2

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Space had seemed to turn to a blue-white color for just a moment as it happened.

Farseer Sendal had meditated in one of the many bio-domes of Iyanden as it had happened, trying to find a way to defend his Craftworld from the Tyranid Hive Fleet that was following them through space for some time now and attacked now and than, drawing away the ships of the escort fleet and landing small invasion forces.

Even now there were battles being fought within the great Craftworld and with the numeric advantage of the Tyranids is all seemed as if it was only a matter of time for them to win. The massive Warp Disturbance the Hive Fleet created was far to strong for the Web Way portal to overcome and call for help from other Craftworlds.

Than the blue-white glow, stronger than the light of the Infinity Circuit that illuminated the bio-dome, had casted its light through the bio-dome and even into the interior of the dome itself. As it faded away as rapidly as it had come, a new yellow light was visible in the center of the view outside, representing a new sun where there should be none.

He had stared at the small yellow light for a few moments before a vision of the future claimed him.

Before most of his visions of the future had contained only death, but this was different.

He saw a blue-white-brown planet, surrounded by a strange silvery ring. Iyanden was orbiting that world together with a large cloud of unknown ships of all sizes. High above the planet was a bubble of red energy. Waves of Hive Ships were clashing at the energy barrier as both Eldar ships and warships of unknown design stood against the waves of Hive Ships destroying each of them.

As the vision vanished, he breathed in deep, feeling something that was rare for his race in these desperate times. The fleet beginnings of Hope.

He got up and rapidly made his way towards the Center of Iyanden, where the Command Center of the massive Craftworld was located.

After entering the large Command Center he had listened to what his colleagues had found out since it had happened. He kept out of the discussion, still needing to think about his vision.

A whole solar system had appeared out of nowhere. While it was not completely unheard of, there had been whole solar systems swallowed up by warp storms and relocated, there had been no effects of a warp storm. The only effect of the Warp were the ones created by the Hive Fleet.

But still there were strange things going on as the whole system seemed as if it didn't completely belong into the materium and was still falling back into the full materium, but from what appeared to be another realm besides the Warp.

There had been a few notions of Farseers talking about the Ancient Enemy, the C'Tan and their Necron puppets, but everything pointed to something else. There was Vox chatter in almost all Vox frequencies, where the Necrons were simply silent. Most of the Vox chatter was also highly encrypted and compressed, showing that whoever was the originator of the chatter had reached at least a certain level of technology.

The Tyranids had also noticed the system and a small portion of the Hive fleet changed course to move towards one of the planets of this new solar system. It would be a pitty that these people in this system would not live much longer, but Iyanden couldn't help them, and even if they could, he doubted that it would be worth the cost in Eldar lives.

Sendal shook his head and stepped forward.

"No, I believe that it is they who will be helping us."

"Explain."

"I have meditated to find a way to defend our Craftworld as this system appeared. I saw Eldar and unknown vessels fight side by side to defeat the Tyranids above an artificially ringed world in this system."

His colleagues looked at him for a moment before shaking their heads.

Only a few moments later that thought changed slightly as a small ship appeared out of nowhere, just a lightsecond away from Iyanden, seemingly observing the large Craftworld. And the Farseers of Iyanden observed the small craft in response.

It was far smaller than any vessel they had seen before and seemed to be more a ship for system defense than anything else.

Far behind them, another vessel had appeared to observe the Tyranid fleet that had split of the main fleet and here the Tyranids were their predictable selves, moving tho intercept the lone ship to destroy or devour it.

It was surprising that the ship, it had to be a form of escort cruiser, survive the first attacks of the Hive ships and turn to flee. But it disappeared before it could run and had most likely been destroyed.

It was that moment as a Vox message was directed at the Craftworld by the small craft that was observing them.

"This is Solar Fleet Command Shabazza," a voice said over the Vox and some of the souls inside the Infinity Circuit recognized the language as being English, an ancient human language," To unknown Craftworld. Do you require assistance?"

Sendal allowed himself a smug smile.

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"Explain," Musashi said, being the first to react to Shabazza and what he had said.

"I was conferring with Seneca and Nathan," the Solar Tree said after a few moments," They have recognized Sigma One and the contacts of Sigma Two."

It was hard to stare at someone you were talking to, when you were standing inside of said person, so Musashi chose to stare at one of the wooden wall of the Naval Command Center.

"They recognized them?"

Shabazza seemed to chuckle slightly.

"I am sure that some of the people in the Command Center have also recognized these vessels."

Musashi grumbled and glared around for a moment.

"Don't beat around the bush."

"It seems that we have arrived in the Warhammer 40k universe. Sigma One seems to be an Eldar Craftworld and the objects making up Sigma Alpha and Sigma Beta seem to be Tyranid Hive ships. We are pretty much screwed if we do not react as soon as possible."

Before Musashi was able to ask what Shabazza meant, a call came from one of the technicians.

"Sir[i_Legolas_ [/iis reporting that several of the ships of Sigma Beta are on an intercept course. They request engagement rules."

Musashi's head turned to the holographic projection that had changed to show a small system grid that contained [i_Legolas_ [/iand parts of Sigma Beta. Ten of the Sigma Beta vessels were moving towards _Legolas_ on an intercept course.

"Sigma Beta has the first shot," he said after a moment and grit his teeth.

"That might be the wrong decision, Admiral," Shabazza noted." A Tyranid Hive Fleet is bad news, sir."

Shabazza was silent for a moment and these Tyranids were moving closer to Legolas.

"Think of the Tyranids as biological Borg, sir," Shabazza continued, knowing about Musashi's Star Trek collection," Or as the big bad brother of the Zerg. They are all about simply devouring all biological matter they come across and add its DNA to themselves. They attack anything organic on sight to devour it."

Musashi stared at the wall he had stared at before.

"They can't be that bad..."

"They are, sir," Shabazza said just as the Tyranid ships opened fire.

Musashi stared at the display, his eyes wandering towards the Craftworld.

"And them?"

"An Elder Craftworld. Either Iyanden or Biel Tan. They are the only ones so far who have been attacked by the Tyranids directly according to the Warhammer 40k fluff. Iyanden was attacked by Hive Fleet Kraken, whereas Biel Tan was attacked by Hive Fleet Tarasque."

On the display _Legolas_ returned fire and launched their fighters. Musashi grit his teeth.

"Iyanden was 'only' just mostly depopulated," Shabazza said and everyone could hear the quotation marks." Biel Tan was completely destroyed and its population devoured. But the forces of Biel Tan managed to weaken Hive Fleet Tarasque sufficiently enough to allow the Imperium of Man to destroy them."

On the display _Legolas_ turned tail and ran. There was still a telemetry link and a small 'health bar' was shown above the Warlock, showing its shield strength. The bar was dropping significantly as the Tyranid ships attacked them.

Musashi closes his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep. As he opened his eyes, _Legolas_ had disappeared from the display.

"_Legolas_ has arrived at Triton Base, Sir."

Muashi breathed in deep again and nodded.

"Good," he said," Now get me _Farseer_ and try to establish contact to this Craftworld."

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"Oh my god."

Marcus John Ryan closed his eyes as he dropped his head on his hands, while his elbows rested on his desk in The Office.

More and more light filtered through the large window as Atlantis surfaced.

After a few moments he looked up and at the holographic display of Merlin who stood in front of his desk.

"Please tell me this is all a bad cruel joke."

Merlin sighed and dropped his head slightly.

"I am sorry, Mr. President, but this is not a joke. Both Seneca and Nathan have confirmed their theories. We have been transfered into the Milkyway Galaxy of the Warhammer 40k universe."

Marcus looked around, helplessly, and into the faces of his staff, who looked equally helpless. Marcus used to play Warhammer 40k in his youth and so he had a good idea of the universe they had been dropped in. And it wasn't something he liked.

He still had his old Imperial Guard and Space Wolf armies carefully tugged away behind glass and he had no illusions what could happen should the Imperium of Man find Sol and Earth. If they were lucky, they would just invade and take over the system. If not...

Marcus shook his head and looked towards the display that showed the vast bulk of the Tyranid Hive Fleet. First they had to survive this attack, than they could worry about the Imperium of Man, Chaos, The Dark Elder, Orks and Necrons.

Eldar and Tau on the other hand were only sowhat minor concerns as you could sowhat talk to the Tau and the Eldar were very likely to leave you alone. But as it seemed that they had to worry about a Craftworld, they would need to deal with the Eldar sooner or later.

And there were other problems especially with the Tryranid Hive Fleet already in system.

"Merlin," he said after a moment," How high is the potential of Genestealer Cults here?"

Merlin tilted his head as if he listened to invisible voices.

"The possibility of Genestealer Cults is middle to high, especially in the aftermath of the attack. I would recommend DNA screening by Ais of any survivors of damaged and destroyed spaceships, as well as any ground troops who have direct contact with the Tyranid Invasion forces."

Marcus nodded.

"And Chaos Cults?"

"Low to middle. Conventional screening done by Seneca should be all that is needed to deal with Chaos Cults. The way I see it they are not very unlike the grow of Shadow cells in the last twenty years. Through I recommend a volunteer screening of any psychically active person for Chaos related activity."

Marcus nodded again.

"Seneca, please increase your screening for anything that would indicate Chaos or Genestealer Corruption."

As a response, a second holographic projection appeared beside Merlin, that of a lean afro-American with a huge afro haircut, dressed in something that appeared as a black SS-like uniform, a cap perked on top of the afro.

"By your command, Mr. President. For the Commonwealth."

Marcus just let his head drop to his table as Seneca disappeared, banging his head on the table lightly.


	4. Chapter 4

Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 3

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Major General Hotaru von Bismark, commander of the 66th Marine Expeditionary Unit, paced up and down in her office, grinding her teeth. She had never liked to play desk jockey, other than her little brother, who had been President for two runs. She still preferred to lead from the front, rather than hide behind some desk, even with now nearly a hundred years.

But as prolong treatments were common and her father had activated Ancient genes, it was possible that she would be nearly six hundred years old before she actually got any problems, or showed her age.

After a moment she stopped to stare at the virtual windowpane of her office, showing the large curve of the Orbital Ring, where _ICS Market Garden_ was docked at the moment. Together with _ICS Overlord_, they were her command, two Block II Normandie LCVs and about eight thousand Marines, sailors and pilots.

To say that she was worried would have been an understatement. Something told her that they had only exchanged one war for another with the transfer and the light headache she felt ever since the transfer wasn't helping either.

The door signal made itself known after a while.

"Come in," she called out and turned her head slightly to look at the newcomer.

"I hope I don't interrupt your thoughts or something."

Hotaru chuckled slightly. It seemed that she would always be stuck with a Dilgar as her second in command. She had one in the 501st, why would the 66th be any different. Not that she had any problem with it. Especially since it happened to be her first commander after getting out of the officers course.

Colonel Mar'key, nicknamed 'Mike', was rather unique as far as Dilgar went. He was tall, muscular and someone who could be mistaken for a Norse warrior if it wasn't for the fact that he was looking very much like a Dilgar. And he had lost for a good amount of time, as the ship he had been assigned to got hit by a chance asteroid, lost its slipstream drive and had to limb to the next civilized planet at high sublight speeds, taking them more than 60 years.

"No, Mike," she said with a sigh." Not really. Just a bad feeling."

Mike nodded ans slowly walked up to stand next to her at the virtual window.

"Yes," he responded." That feeling as if you think there is another dome bursting."

Hotaru snorted. Mike had been born more than a hundred years ago on New Omelos, before the GDI had found them. He remembered every bad thing about the slums the domes of New Omelos had been back than.

She wanted to says something, but the intercom made itself known.

"Yes?" she asked into the room.

"Admiral Musashi from Shabazza, General."

She sighed and Mike chuckles slightly.

"Put it through."

"Yes, ma'am."

A short command over her implant caused the video screen to be displayed on the virtual window.

The head and upper body of Admiral Musashi appeared on the screen. After the moment it took for the connection to stabilize, he nodded at Hotaru and Mike.

"General, Colonel."

"Sir," Mike said and saluted, while Hotaru nodded in response.

"What can I do for you, Admiral," she asked after a moment." Are there any problems on a Tree or one of the refugee camps?"

Musashi shook his head and breathed in deep.

"That would have been too easy," he said, causing Hotaru to raise an eyebrow." No, its bigger. Much bigger."

Hotaru's eyes narrowed.

"How big."

"Galactic War big."

Next to Hotaru, Mike cursed silently under his breath in his native language. Hotaru noted for a moment that a good number of the curses were still from the time prior to the Dilgar contacts with Earth and wished that she wouldn't have been able to hear it.

"I'm all ears," she said and breathed in deep.

"I need the 66th and several of the other Marine Expeditionary Units to form a Marine Expeditionary Force for immediate deployment. You are going to have the command over that Force, General. And I need you ready yesterday. I'm sending you a file with everything you need to know."

Hotaru grit her teeth and for a moment she cursed internally.

"I'll see what I can do, Admiral."

Musashi nodded.

"The other Unit commanders are going to contact you soon. Shabazza out."

The video display disappeared and Hotaru cursed out loud, while Mike looked at her with a grim smile and the symbol of a successful file transfer appeared on the virtual window.

"Well, I always said that your rank is one to high for a MEU."

"Oh, shut up, Colonel."

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Sendal stepped up while the other Farseers in the Command Center of Iyanden looked at each other and started to debate. All the while the voice continued to ask if they required assistance.

Everyone heard the whispers of the Infinity Circuit and those souls who remembered the language being spoken by the Vox contact as being an ancient mon-keigh language, named English. Some of them had already translated what the voice had asked.

The voice offered help? That was something unheard to any Eldar. No one ever had offered them help, ever.

On the other hand, Sendal thought, they hadn't needed help this desperately before. Without help, the Tyranids would destroy Iyanden and if the Infinity Circuit was destroyed, their souls and those of their ancestors would be lost in the Warp and devoured by Slaanesh.

Sendal looked at his debating colleagues, shaking his head slightly. He breathed in deep and nodded to himself.

He could clearly remember his earlier vision. This system and those who lived in it were their only way to survive the attack of the Hive Fleet. And wasn't it the duty of a Farseer to ensure the survival of his race?

He licked his lips and breathed in again, forcing himself to calm down.

"Open a return channel," he finally said and the other Farseers stopped to stare at him.

"Are you mad?" one of them asked, but Sendal didn't answer him as he looked for the right words to react to the offered help.

"Uhm... yes."

In his own mind he wanted to slap himself. Very smooth. Just the right reaction of an Eldar to an inferior race. Oh well, it was a beginning, wasn't it?

He breathed in deep again

"This is Farseer Sendal of Craftworld Iyanden. We do require assistance."

Another voice returned over the Vox, while the other Farseers glared at Sendal.

"This is Admiral Musahi of the Habanake Clan, Interstellar Commonwealth Navy," the voice answered." We have your Craftworld and your persuaders on our sensors."

Sendal closes his eyes for a moment, before giving a look towards his colleagues, who were back to looking at each other and debating among themselves. As far as he knew up until now, Iyanden was still in the outer fridges of this solar system, but considering that there was a small ship on a course parallel to their Craftworld, that was not much of a surprise.

"What assistance can you render?" he asked after a moment and after a moment he added. "Admiral?"

"We will send you a fast response fleet," the foreign admiral said after a moment." Some heavy battleships and a ground support force."

"Ground support?" Sendal asked after a moment.

Did that ship have such powerful sensors that it was able to see where Tyranid forces were invading the Craftworld? And why had they not noticed those sensors before?

"I am pretty sure that you already have," the Admiral said after a moment," or will receive some... visitors."

They were guessing? Sendal wondered, but shook his head. Than he looked back at the image of that small ship on a parallel course. If that ship and the ship that had been destroyed were any indication, they would not help that much.

On the other hand they were adding more cannon fodder for the Craftworlds defense. It might not be very much, but maybe it would allow them more time to find another way to call for help from the other Craftworlds.

A short glance over to his colleagues and the emotions he could feel from them, showed that they were thinking the same.

"We would be..." he stopped to search for the right worlds," grateful if you could do that."

"Good," the Admiral continued." We'd like you to change your course to follow a path past the sixth, fifth, fourth, second planets to the third planet of our system."

Sendal blinked and looked towards the others. The Infinity Circuit had already reacted and a representation of the system was hanging in the center of the room. A single line showed a course that was following the way points the Admiral had given them. It was rather twisted the way it was displayed.

"The course is... strage," he noted after a moment.

"That may be," the Admiral responded," But it bring Iyanden, and with it the Tyranid fleet, into the primary firing range of several major defense platforms of the Solar Defense Grid. We want to make them run the gauntlet."

Sendal breathed in deep. While his vision had shown him that this was the only possible way of survival, the other Farseers didn't have that vision.

"And who tells us that you are not shooting at us too?"

The Admiral didn't respond for several moment.

"I swear on my honor that we are not going to fire at you," he than said, sounding not very pleased." If those Tyranids destroy your Craftworld, they destroy us. One near destruction of the IC this month is enough..."

Sendal blinked.

"Near destruction?" he wondered out loud.

"That has time for later."

Sendal looked back at his colleagues, who finally nodded.

"We will change our course. When will your fleet reinforce ours?"

"They will be on the way shortly," the Admiral said after a moment." We would also want to give you the choice of evacuating all your non-combatants."

Sendal looked up and stared at the display of the small ship. Around him he could feel how his colleagues were equally surprised.

"Evacuate?" he asked out loud.

A voice in the back of his mind noted that it would save more lives on the long run, at least those of the children and anyone else who wasn't a warrior. But on the other hand...

He looked back at his colleagues.

"Get them to safety and make sure they are not harmed."

The voice of the Admiral once again sounded like it had sounded when he had sworn that they would not fire at Iyanden. Something said Sendal that the Admiral was meaning it.

"We need to talk about that first."

"Not a problem," the Admiral said." That would be all for now. I will send a officer with the fleet who will be my personal contact to you. Anything you would like to know."

Sendal nodded to himself and once again looked back at the other Farseers.

"No, we have no questions at the moment."

"Good. Admiral Musashi out."

The Command Center fell silent for several minutes, while Iyanden changed its course, controlled by the souls inside the Infinity Circuit.

"You will deal with them," one of the other Farseers said after a long while, pointing at Sendal.

Sendal nodded. Yes, he had expected something like that.


	5. Chapter 5

Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 4

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_ICS Enterprise_ was one of a kind, the successor of the old _ICS Enterprise_ that had meet its fate high above the planet of Xyral, defending it against the Third Space Aliens in the wake of the Second Third Space War.

_Enterprise_ was the sole ship of the Enterprise class, a sub-class of the Bahamut, designed after the _Vengeance_ of Star Wars fame. Measuring fifteen kilometers in length it looked incredibly sleek and thin for its size, but still packed more firepower than a Bahamut, thanks to being the only ship of outside of the two Titans to mount a BU Generator to provide it with power.

Many in the Commonwealth Navy saw _Enterprise_ as being the unofficial flagship of the Navy, but actually she was the flagship of the 3rd Heavy Fast Response Fleet, able to be deployed to even the furthest places of the Commonwealth with its fleet and defend Commonwealth interests.

And currently she was the only ship of the Bahamut class that was not in dock, as it lacked the Quantum Cascade Systems in favor for Gravitic Accelerator Cannon emplacements.

Aside from _Enterprise_, the 3rd HFR was consisting mainly of ships that were designed for heavy firepower. Ships like the Centurion Dreadnoughts, the Nova II and Nova III Battleships, Rattlesnake I and Rattlesnake II Battlecruisers and Kushan, Kadeshi and Nadesico Frigates as screening elements.

Deep within the heavily armored hull of _Enterprise_, Vice Admiral Henry Windsor, Prince of Wales, was sitting in his office, staring at the face of Admiral Musashi.

"What?"

Musashi sighed and looked back at him, saying nothing.

"Why the hell do you want us at Saturn?"

"Because of a real problem that was in the space that is now taken the Sol System. Now that problem is heading for Earth. After a longer run through the Solar Defense Grid."

Henry closed his eyes for a moment.

"How big of a problem," he asked after a moment, causing the Shin'bi on the other side of the communication channel to scratch his chin.

"Something the size of the Main Invasion fleet of the Second Third Space War."

Henry cursed. He had lost a good number of his men back than, while he had still been Rear Admiral and the head of a Task Fleet under Musashi's command. And the fleet Third Space ships that had been dubbed Main Invasion Fleet had consisted of hundred thousands of ships. Some counts had come out at over a million vessels.

He closed his eyes for a moment and leaned back, massaging his temples slightly.

"How many?"

"Current counts are at about six hundred thousand... vessels."

Henry breathed in again and for a moment he wondered if he should have listened to his brother and keep out of the Navy and go to the Army.

"And you want me to do what exactly? Charge at them and hope they run away frightened?"

Musashi smiled slightly as he shook his head.

"No," he said after a moment." We have contact of a larger vessel and its escorts that the fleet is trying to intercept and destroy. I want you to reinforce that escort and make sure that the fleet does not reinforce its forces on that large vessel."

Henry blinked a few times.

"What?" he asked confused.

"I send you a package with the information of all we know at the moment."

A small symbol popped up in the lower left corner and Henry nodded.

"I got that package."

"Good. Everything else is in there."

"Okay, anything else?"

"I ordered General von Bismark for form a Marine Expeditionary Force. You'll pick up her ships and escort them to your rendezvous."

Henry raised an eyebrow.

"You do know that I'm married?"

Musashi shot him a glare.

"That would be all. Musashi out."

Henry sunk together in his seat and massaged his temples again.

"Bloody Hell," he cursed out and stood up.

He walked towards the small 'hidden' bar of his office, pouring himself a glass of Scotch. He downed the glass on one go and poured himself another, to take back to his desk.

Sitting back down, he glared at the currently dark virtual screen and tapped the small icon in the lower left corner, pulling up the file. Letting his eyes go over the first few sentences he stopped and glared at the display.

"A bloody Craftworld?"

He let go of another string of curses, most of them not even being English.

Yes, he knew what a Craftworld was, considering that his oldest son Andrew used to play Warhammer 40k, especially the Eldar. Out of interest, he had read the Rulebooks once.

Once again he closed his eyes and than grabbed the glass of Scotch and downed it. For a moment, he considered to get the Scotch bottle to his desk, but decided against it. There was more time to get drunk after all this.

He continued to read and eventually came to the part about their enemies.

"Oh FUCK!"

That was followed by the foulest curses anyone could imagine and were most defiantly not fit for a royal mouth.

---------------------------------------------------------

Musashi sighed as he turned towards the large display in the center of the Control Room.

True to their word the Eldar had changed the course of Iyanden and the Tyranids were following them. Their current course was taking them towards Saturn. Normally Musashi had send them towards Uranus, but right now the planet was on the other side of the solar system and its Defense Platforms were of no real use.

"Status of the System Defense Grid," he queried.

The display that had shown Iyanden and its defense fleet and the Tyranids zoomed out to a more complete display of the greater area of the system that used to be directed towards Vega.

Several green clouds appeared all over the display, representing free floating DefGrids that were scattered all over the outer system.

Musashi narrowed his eyes.

"Highlight the DefGrids that are in range of the Tyranid fleet."

DefGrids were free floating groups of various smaller defense platforms, consisting of extreme, long, middle and short ranged weapon systems, specially designed to have the look and feel of asteroid groups, but act as a very nasty surprise to anyone who entered the Solar System in an unfriendly manner and make their life hell while they had to move through normal space on their way to the inner system as the Aagenflet Barrier would be erected to prevent any slipstream use inside the system for the other side.

Three of the clouds were highlighted and Musashi requested the information about their ranges over his implant. Immediately circles showing the ranges where shown on the display and Musashi cursed slightly.

All of the three DefGrids were only able to fire their extreme long ranged weapons and those where very inaccurate at the ranges of more than twenty million kilometers, like in this case. And only one of the DefGrids was within twenty million kilometers to the Hive Fleet and than only the rear elements.

It would have to do.

"Order to the DefGrid systems to fire their ER weapons at the Hive Fleet," he said after a moment.

On the display dark green lines began to spread out from the DefGrid clouds, streaking toward the Hive Fleet.

Musashi nodded to himself and breathed in deep.

"Highlight the DefGrids that are in range of the projected trajectory of Iyanden."

Several dozen DefGrids were highlighted.

---------------------------------------------------------

Several million kilometers away from the outer frigate equivalent layers of the Hive Fleet, dozens of satellites in different sizes and extreme long ranged weapons awoke from their decade long slumber and activated their energy systems. Having been powered by small solar panels their transceiver clusters had been kept ready to receive their commands to fire.

Specially designed as they were they were little more than cold dark objects, easily confused with asteroids as they only gave off as many energy as they received from the distant sun. Even the transceiver clusters were only giving off low amounts of energy, barley worthy to be acknowledged.

But now that they received their orders, everything happened fast. Surprisingly fast. Capacitor banks that had kept their energy for decades directed their stored energy into their satellites reactors, starting them and the controlling higher systems.

Reaction control systems fired for the first time in decades and stabilized the satellites as their sensors booted up to look out for their targets. Seconds were going by before the satellites fired their reaction controls again to direct their weapons towards their targets.

Other capacitors were filled with energy as the weapon systems were prepared. Than the first satellite fired.

Gravitic systems activated, pushing missiles the size of Minuteman rockets of old into space, where they activated their own gravitic drives. Each of the satellites pushed a good dozen of these missiles into space, before their systems contacted Shabazza, flagging themselves as depleted.

As fast as they had activated, they deactivated themselves. The last bits of energy floated into the capacitor banks that had started them, while valves opened up, flushing heated gases and fluids out into space, cooling them down as well as changing their courses ever so slightly in a ballet of coordinated orbital mechanics.

Streaking away from the rapidly cooling satellites of their origin, the missiles pulled high accelerations, going in the high hundred gees, using their own highly sophisticated targeting systems to keep track of their targets and trying to calculate the point of their intercept course. Here and there one missile or another changed their courses ever so slightly to keep track of their targets or switch to another target.

Not even three million kilometers away from the Tyranid Hive Fleet the missiles had depleted their internal energy stores and with two thirds of light speed had reached their maximum velocity. The tips of half of the missiles opened up, while strong springs and explosive bolts released thin and heavy rods of transuranic metals, pushing them out into a cloud surrounding the propulsion stage.

Of course the satellites and the missiles had been noticed by the Hive Mind of Kraken, but even as the missiles accelerated towards the vessels of the Hive Fleet, the Hive Mind only directed several of its smaller ships out to intercept and destroy the incoming missiles.

One million kilometers out from the Hive Fleet the heads of the remaining missiles opened up, releasing tens of transuranium cones with short cylinders attached to them on long thin threads.

Unknown to the Hive Mind, its defenses were sorely directed towards the propulsion stages of the missiles, not even sensing the large number of smaller inert relativistic projectiles heading towards their targets.

Than it happened as the first of the outer interceptors were moving to destroy the propulsion stages. Long thin rods of metal impacted into the bone and chitinous armor of Hive ships, penetrating into their bodies, spending their kinetic energy to heat and vaporizing bone and chitin, opening up large wounds that exposed their inner organs to the hard vacuum of space.

Other rods of metal followed to penetrate deep into the muscles, flesh and organs of the ships bodies.

The cones with their short threaded cylinders soon followed. Like cutting chargers the cones impacted into the bone and chitin, opening deeper wounds in the ships bodies before the cylinders followed.

Each of the cylinders had awoken to live earlier and now detonated, before reaching the boiling tissue of their wounded target ships.

Short lived high gravitic fields were flung into the open wounds shredding, compressing and outright destroying organic tissue. In some cases the gravitic fields were strong enough to compress the surrounding organic matter so much that it expanded violently after the gravitic field expired, creating the energy of a small nuke that wounded the ships even more.

But even as dozens of ships were hit by the missiles, the same number of missiles outright missed, sending their payload of metal rods and into deep space. Most of the gravitic charges however detonated in between the Hive Ships, the gravitic fields sending ships tumbling and even colliding with each other.

Minutes after the satellites had fired their load, they continued to drift along their orbits as if nothing had happened, only their expanded magazines telling that they had been activated, while the Hive Fleet had outright lost about thirty ships, with three times that number wounded to various degrees.


	6. Chapter 6

Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 5

---------------------------------------------------------

"Didn't they say their main System Defences were in the orbit of those planets?"

Sendal wanted to know the same. As Iyanden, and with her the Tyranid Hive Fleet moved closer to the sixth planet of this new solar system, objects they had previously thought to be asteroids came to life, launching missiles that had insane acceletations and went back to being 'asteroids'.

And even as the Tyranids had managed to intercept these missiles, the missiles had still managed to destroy a small number of Hive ships, somehow. From what he and his colleagues had managed to see was that the spread of damage had looked very much like the damage of an Ork weapon, the 'shotgunz'.

There had also been several suddenly appearing high gravitic fields, destroying Hive Ships, either by outright crushing them, causing them to detonate from the inside, or crushing their hulls.

And that had happened over the last two hours since the first missile had been launched and three since this system had simply appeared. Once or twice, these small 'asteroid' clusters had appeared not even a million kilometers away from the course they were using and the Farseers of Iyanden had been able to see four different stages of activation of these small clusters.

First had been the extreme long ranged missile attack. It was followed by another attack of smaller missiles, less fast, but each armed with powerful nuclear, thermonuclear and some of these strange gravitic warheads.

The Third Stage had looked like they were missiles again, at least at the beginning. But as these missiles had avoided the now more numerous Stinger Pods, that had been launched by the Tyranid Hive Fleet to intercept any missiles, it had become clear that they were not missiles. They had even managed to move past the first layers of the Tyranid ships, striking at several of the Hive Ships before being destroyed. But in the end they had been less effective than the missiles.

Than the fourth stage had followed as elements of the Hive Fleet had moved closer to the cluster to destroy it. Several of the 'asteroids' had imploded into high intensity gravitic fields and at the same time high yield nuclear weapons inside had detonated. No one had quite understood why that had happened, at least until Hive Ships in the attacking element had been cleaved in half by beams of coherent x-rays. Other 'asteroids' had fired more conventional beams of energy, that were also able to strike deep wounds into those Hive Ships they hit.

And this fourth Stage fired the whole time the Hive Fleet elements needed to reach the cluster and destroy all 'asteroids'.

"More of those clusters," one of his colleagues said, causing Sendal to swallow slightly.

This was getting more and more confusing. Who were these people? Not even the Mon-Keigh built such elaborate defences.

He was very sure that these cluster would show up the entire way until they had reached the third planet of the system.

He felt the alarm of the Infinity Circuit, just like everyone else in the Command Center. The part of the system they were moving through was still displayed in the center of the room and a large red cluster of vessels appeared next to the small ship of the system defense that was following them for the last two and a half hours.

The fleet that appeared had only a portion of the ships Iyanden's escorts had. And most of these ships were much smaller than most of Iyanden's battleships. Through there was one ship that was at least three times as long as a Void Stalker.

It was a massive black triangular hull that looked incredibly sleek, while the other ships had a boxy shape with very visible turreted weapons, covering good portions of the hull. The most numerous ships however were small ships, not even a kilometer in length with no visible weapons. What were those ships?

"This is Admiral Windsor of the 3rd Commonwealth Heavy Fast Response Fleet to Craftworld Iyanden," a voice called over the Vox." Please respond."

Sendal felt the glares directed at him and sighed.

"This is Farseer Sendal of Iyanden," he said after a few moments." We hear you."

The owner of the voice seemed to smile as he responded.

"We're the first wave of your reinforcements," Windsor said." I hope you don't mind if we come closer and reinforce your fleet."

Sendal eyed his colleagues, before he nodded to himself.

"No, we do not mind," he said." You best contact Commander Manar of the _Shield of Iyanden_. He is the commander of our escort fleet."

"Good," was Windsors response." We also brought some transports with us to reinforce your... uhm... groundforces."

Sendal looked up. While he could direct the commander of their escorts to the commander of the unknown fleet, he would have to directly coordinate the Craftworlds defending troops with the ground forces of the unknowns.

"We will try to give those transports a landing area. How many transports are there?"

"Nine transports," Windsor answered after a moment." They are now breaking away from my ships to move closer to your Craftworld."

"Understood," Sendal said and looked at the display of the unknown fleet.

Truth to Windsors words, nine of their ships, even smaller than the most numerous ships broke away and moved closer towards Iyanden.

"If there is nothing more, I will now contact Commander Manar."

Sendal shook his head, even through Windsor was not able to see him. While he wanted to know why this small fleet of vessels was considered to be a Heavy Fast Response Fleet, if its ships where so small and most of them appeared to lack any weapons, he knew that he shouldn't ask that question, lest he would make his work and that of Commander Manar more difficult than it was bound to be.

"No, we have nothing more."

"Good, _Enterprise_ out."

As the Vox connection terminated, he turned around to look at his colleagues.

"Where are we going to let them land?" he asked after a while.

"Somewhere close to the Tyranids. We need them as cannonfodder fast."

"And I will come with you when you deal with them."

Namik, who used to be Sendals friend in their younger years, stepped forward and once again he asked himself when their friendship had been broken. Maybe it was that battle against Orks a century earlier, when Sendal had been forced to leave behind a group of Banshees, one of them Namik's wife.

Sendal sighed. It would be hard to work with Namik and these Commonwealth troops. But something told Sendal that they were far from being mere cannonfodder.

---------------------------------------------------------

Hotaru concentrated at the small holographic display that was projected directly into her eye. The display showed the massive form of the Eldar Craftworld Iyanden, and Hotaru had to say that that she was impressed. Sure she had seen larger vessels in their home universe and some that were looking equally grateful, but this massive vessel was something else entirely. Maybe it was the fact that its entire structure housed billions of souls.

That thought alone made her shudder slightly.

"Certainly impressive," came the more or less deadpan voice from behind her and she turned to face the speaker.

The person behind her was one of the proofs that a BOLO wasn't a mere war machine, but a person with all rights and duties of any sentient being. As well as quite capable of raising through the ranks of his or her service.

Hotaru found it sowhat ironic that the particular Bolo had risen through the ranks of the Marine Corps just like his 'pattern'.

Brigadier General Chesty Puller, official BOLO hull number 413-B443-CHP, raised an eyebrow at Hotaru as she gave him a smirk.

"Something the matter, Marine?"

She simply chuckled again.

"Nothing really," she responded.

Yes, the history of Chesty was very ironic. Since no one really understood how the intelligence of a newly constructed BOLO named itself and pulled forth its new personality, it was not very surprising that he had named himself Chesty Puller. What was surprising had been that fact that he had requested, very vocal at that, to be put into the Marine Corps, becoming the first Marine BOLO.

Maybe it was a little of a joke to the people in the Pentagon to assign him to those Units whose designations all but matched those of the real 'Chesty' Puller. So he was now in command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit and had come to Hotaru to ask her to be added to her new command, the new 7th Marine Expeditionary Force.

She had granted that request and now he was with her and the other commander of her four MEUs, preparing for the battle. Of course he was also over on his own dedicated Conquistador.

He was standing out between the other marines in full armor, as he was the only one wearing a Korea War era Marine Combat Uniform.

"I just noticed that you can actually see some of the battle," she noted after a while." I guess our landing site is going to be less than ten kilometers away from the frontlines."

Puller nodded.

"Makes it easier to get into the thick of it," he noted.

Hotaru snorted and looked back at him.

"Makes me wonder where you are going to make a difference than, considering that most of the Craftworld is going to be an Urban environment."

"Bah," Puller said." Shows how old your deep scans are. At least one third of the area is large enough for BOLOs to duke it out."

She laughed.

"Well, not everyone has a combat rated sensory system installed next to her brain."

A short alarm was going through the ship and the large halls where the Marines were preparing to disembark from the ship.

"One minute until landing."

Hotaru nodded to herself and ran a last check of her Gasium III Light Powerassisted Armor and reached for her pulse rifle to sling it across her back.

On the small display she could see the open airlock large enough to allow her transports to pull through and land neatly next to each other. A irising light spanned across the open airlock, showing that the Eldar used forcefields to keep their atmosphere in. And it also showed a good number of Eldar troops on the other side of the forcefield.

"Well, looks like our welcoming squad is ready to welcome us. And they don't look very happy."

"I doubt that anyone is going to be happy about having a stranger with his army helping them," Hotaru noted and chuckled as she stretches a little.

"Sir, ma'am," Mike said as he moved up to them. "Ready to get this show on the roll?"

Since he had been Hotaru's Second in Command of the 66th MEU, she had given her old command over to him, with him also receiving his first Star. Now that star was put on the helmet of his Mjolnir as it hung from his belt, his own pulse rifle hanging from its magnetic holster.

Hotaru raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, lets kick in some heads," she noted and grinned evilly and pushed a magazine into her rifle.

By now _Market_ _Garden_ had passed the forcefield of the Airlock and was hovering above the large landing pad, waiting for the last of the Eldar to leave it, before settling down gently like a feather.

"Okay, people," Hotaru called out, and pushing her voice over her com implant so that it was heard in the other ships." The airlocks remain closed until I give the green light. I'm personally going to meet the Eldar Commander, since I'm most likely to work with him or her."

With a nod, she send a short command to the bay crew. One of the large several meter thick panels that made up the sidewall of the 'Cargo Bay' swung upwards, giving free sight to five floors worth of troops and vehicles.

A short ramp folded down to the ground of the landing pad and Hotaru smirked a little as she saw how an Eldar hovertank moved toward them, while all around other hoveranks were preparing to fire at them, should they turn out to be hostile.

"Definatly not happy about us being here," Mike noted.

"Considering the environment, I wouldn't be happy either."

The three Generals left the large Normandie and walked down the ramp, reaching its end as the hovertank stopped in front of them.

A pair of tall Eldar disembarked the tank and walked over them, stopping several meters in front of them. Hotaru looked over to Mike, only to note that he was about as tall as one of the Eldar, through they didn't share his powerful build.

Hotaru than took a step forward.

"I'm Major General Hotaru von Bismark, commander of the 7th Marine Expeditionary Force."


	7. Chapter 7

Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 6

---------------------------------------------------------

Sendal blinked as his Falcon moved towards the large blocky ships that had set down in the landing bay. Than he blinked again. Finally he glanced at Namik from the corner of his eyes. Thankfully he looked about as confused as Sendal found himself to be. But since Sendal had some more training in hiding his emotions as well as knowing that something strange was going on, he felt himself to be in a better position to deal with the newcomers.

He breathed in deep as he looked out of the grav tank and at the three forms that had left one of the blocky ships.

One of those forms happened to be a mon-keigh, but he wasn't wearing any uniform Sendal knew. It was certainly not the uniform of the Imperial Guard or the Imperial Navy, as the uniform lacked the double headed eagle or any winged skulls. Instead his mode of dress was an unicolor knhaki and a bowl shaped helmet.

The next in that group was a very tall humanoid and at first glance he did look as if he was at least related to the mon-keigh, one of those abhumans perhaps? Only a short analysis the Infinity Circuit provided him with on a small display of his helmet noted that this humanoid wasn't abhuman. Than there was also that dark green suit of armor he was wearing, a helmet hanging from the helmet. It looked at least slightly like the suit of a Space Marine, through it lacked many of the details from a Space Marines armor. For one the helmet had a large reflecting vison instead of the skull-like visage. And it lacked the oversized shoulder pads.

The third was the most interesting of them all. Sendal noted that not even the souls in the Infinity Circuit could pinpoint what race it, or rather she, belonged to. She was a little less tall than the humanoid, but the most streaking features were the reptilian tail, the dark orange of her skin, the pair of sizable wings and the fact that her face had a a reptilian cast to it. She, even more than the humanoid was so different that Sendal had problems imagining something like her working together with a mon-keigh without him trying to kill her.

The grav tank stopped and Sendal looked over towards Namik and a short move of his head noted that his former friend should follow him. Sendal could imagine how Namik was scrowling at him from behind his helmet as he stepped off the tank.

They slowly walked towards the three people standing in front of the large ship and for the first time Sendal really notes how large the ship was from close by. A massive armored panel, easily six meters thick had swing open and now hung in the air, defying the artificial gravity of Iyanden. And behind the large panel, Sendal could see at least five stories of thick decks, illuminated from behind and a variety of shapes standing close to the edge. Some looked close to mon-keight tanks, while others looked not very unlike mon-keight Dreadnoughts.

It was something that didn't quite fit into his current world view and he could clearly sense the confusion that was rolling of the souls in the Infinity Circuit. It was hard to ignore the constant feeling of their all ancestors in the very structure of their Craftworld.

As they moved closer Sendal noted that the reptilian looked over to the humanoid at the moment ignoring the mon-keigh. Yes, the reptilian was defiantly a female, it was kind of obvious due to the fact how her own dark green uniform was shaped rather close to her body. But he was wondering why a reptilian had rather mammalian secondary sexual characteristics. Not to mention a head of very fine and lusterious black hair.

It was a surprise as the reptilian stepped forward.

"I'm Major General Hotaru von Bismark, commander of the 7th Marine Expeditionary Force," the reptilian introduced herself and gave him a short salute, not unlike those he had seen while observing the Imperial Guard before one assault two centuries earlier.

Behind his helmet Sendal blinked again. Without moving his head he locked his eyes on the mon-keigh. He had said nothing, merely crossed his arms over his big solid chest. It was surprising that he didn't introduce himself as the commander of the force that had landed. Instead this Hotaru was the commander and as far as Sendal knew had a rather high rank, at least if this forces rank structure was similar to that of the Imperial Guard. Perhaps some sort of Commissar?

Than he stumbled over the reptilians name. Hotaru von Bismark. That sounded very much like a mon-keigh name.

She pointed first towards the large armored humanoid and at a closer look Sendal noted that he had something of a large predator. His facial expression was neutral and only the stubble of longer hairs in his face quivered slightly.

"Brigadier General Mar'key, 66th Marine Expeditionary Unit," Von Bismark said and than turned towards the barrel chested mon-keigh. "Brigadier General Chesty Puller, 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit."

Sendal noted that both the humanoid and the mon-keigh had the same rank and it seemed to be ranking below that of Von Bismark.

"Farseer Sendal of Iyanden," he said after a few moments and than mentioned towards Namik." My colleague, Farseer Namik. Welcome on our Craftworld."

He breathed in deep as he could swear that he heard Namik grit his teeth. Sendal wouldn't be the last to say that he didn't like that they had to resort to help from someone other than Eldar. But he knew that it was a little more for Namik. Not only because he disliked Sendal, but also because he also very strongly disliked the mon-keigh.

All three of the people in front of them nodded and again it was Vom Bismark to say something.

"I think we should now talk about how to deploy my Marines," she noted and glanced at the large cavern like opening in the lower armor of the ship behind them.

"Your Marines?" Namik noted." Do 'your Marines' include more of these primitive barbarians like that mon-keigh?"

Sendal breathed in deep as Namik pointed into the direction of Puller. Strangely enough the humanoid had more of a reaction than the mon-keigh in question, who merely raided an eyebrow.

"Monkey?" was also the single verbal reaction of Puller.

Sendal was sure that Namik was glaring at Puller right about now.

"Humans..." Namik continued and the way he spoke out that word got across the large amount of loathing he felt towards this particular race. Not that it lessened the loathing most Eldar felt towards the mon-keigh.

"Our ancestors should have dealt with them a long time ago," Namik continued and Sendal tried to stop him from saying much more, making this first meeting into more of a disaster than it already was, by reaching for his shoulder. But Namik looked into Sendal's direction and batted away the hand, making it clear that he was not going to stop.

"Now they are spreading everywhere, contaminating the galaxy with their very presence like a pestilence."

Again Puller didn't do much to react at Namiks little rant, while Vom Bismark glared at Namik. Sendal felt a headache creeping up to him. Right now he tried to think of a way to somehow salvage the situation.

He was taken by surprise as the humanoid pretty much exploded and he could feel the headache grow stronger, but this time not because of the situation. It was as if Mar'key had suddenly turned into a psyker beacon.

"What did you say?" Mar'key asked in a dangerously silent voice, his face having lost the formerly red color and Sendal could have sworn that he could make out a very slight shape of a crescent on his forehead.

Mar'key closed the distance between him and Namik and Sendal noted that they were both of equal height, through the humanoid was of a more powerful build. Mar'key's face was only an inch away from the faceplate of Namik's helmet, looking like a large predator ready to pounce on its prey.

Around them, Sendal knew that several hundred shuriken rifles and other weapons were now pointed at Mar'key.

"I said," Namik said, not bulging as he was most likely staring back at Mar'key." This primitive barbarians are spreading everywhere, contaminating the galaxy with their very presence like a pestilence."

"I tell you what," Mar'key said, his voice still silent and dangerous, while the pressure from him increased." These 'barbarians' have my race from extinction."

The pressure changed rather suddenly and Sendal saw a very dirty corridor, flickering lights everywhere. He not merely saw the corridor, he could smell the stale air and the various scents of feces, decompositing garbage and maybe even corpses. He had to fight the urge to retch at the horrible smell.

He could see several people, looking not unlike Mar'key, but with thin faces and bones that showed through their skin. Dressed in ratty and dirty clothes that looked like they were cobbled together from other clothes, their movements didn't show the predatory movements of Mar'key. They looked very lethargic and their eyes empty, their souls broken.

"You have no idea how much they have given us," he could hear the voice of Mar'key and realized that he was somehow broadcasting his own memories.

"Do you have any idea how it is to know nothing else but hunger? Do you have any idea how it is to fear for your life and at the same time hope that you die?"

The memory peaked around a corner and there he could see how two of Mar'keys people were standing in front of a child, not much more than skin and bones itself. He was shocked to see how one of the adults put his arms around the kid and hugged it, while the other reached for a gun and put it to the kids head first, shooting. The hugging adult wasn't moving as the other put the gun on his or her head and shot again, before pulling the trigger on the own head.

Sendal swallowed at the memory as it moved closer to the three now dead, being able to make out their shapes and their faces. The kind and the first adult were still hugging each other. All there of the corpses had smiles and tears on their faces, as if knowing that their death was giving their souls rest in their afterlife.

"Do you know that I have asked my parents if I was ill after I had eaten enough to not be hungry for the first time in my life?"

The memory changed. Mar'keys people were still skin and bones, still wore the ratty clothing, but now they were standing in front of a smiling mon-keigh woman in a strange black and white dress as she handed out food and other supplies.

"Your 'barbarians' gave us food and clothes, helped up build up, repair the domes of New Omelos, and when we were threatened with destruction they fought and died to protect us! We had nothing and they treated us as equels. They gave us back our dignity, they gave us back our hope, they gave us back our will to live!"

He didn't say anything for a moment and the memories faded, allowing Sendal to once again see what was going on around them. Von Bismak had put a hand on Mar'keys shoulder slowly and gently pulling him back. Mar'key only reluctantly followed her guide.

"You know what they wanted? Nothing."

The glare of Mar'keys eyes seemed to intensify for a moment.

"We would have gladly given out very souls to them. And they wanted nothing more than our friendship."

He breathed in deep and Sendal let go of his breath not noticing that he had held it.

"That was more than the sneers and condescension we had received from from any of the so called 'civilized' races. If that makes them 'barbarians', than to hell with civilized men."

Namik was at least as stunned as Sendal, not only from what Mar'key had said but also of what they had seen from his memories.

Sendal was about to say something as an alarm blared through the large landing bay and through the speakers of his helmet. A small pointer in the display of his helmet popped up and he turned around. Staring at a very large black cloud that moved through the air closer to his troops through several of the entries to the bay on that side.

"Tyranids, I guess," he heard Puller say and his head whipped around to stare at the man. He didn't show any fear as he looked towards the incoming Harridans, Gargoyles and Winged Hive Tyrants.

They attacked Sendals own troops with vigor as the ship above them suddenly opened fire and more of those massive armored panels swung up to defy gravity.

Just as the last of the panels was opened the shapes on the large decks likewise opened fire, filling their air with deadly energy, projectiles and missiles. It was as if the Tyranids had been hit with a giant hammer as the weapons of the Eldars new 'allies' found their marks.

Scores of Tyranids were wounded and killed as the let go of the Eldar surrounding the landing bay moving closer towards the firing ship.

Sendal was sure that the ship behind was containing hundreds of warriors as well as vehicles and they all fired. Next to them, the three Generals had reached for the weapons that hung from their backs, pulling them to their shoulders and fired, their weapons spitting balls of blue energy at the Tyranids.

More and more Tyranids fell from the sky and Sendal couldn't do much more than stare at the unreal scene. He had seen the Imperial Guard in action with similar amounts of sheer firepower, but he knew that this was different.

He ducked slightly as the massive form of a Harridan fell out of the air with a thumb, numerous missiles had all but ripped open its guts.

"Kind of look like Xenomorphs, eh?" he heard Mar'key ask and swallowed.

"Kinda," was Von Bismarks reply.

"Meh, bug is bug," came from Puller."They all squish just the same."

What happened as the last of the Tyrants hit the ground in front of Puller would burn itself into Sendals memory.

The Tyrant tried to claw its way towards the man, who looked at it without showing any signs of fear.

"Damn, aren't you one ugly bastard."

As if the Tyrant had understood him, it screeched and tried to slash him in two with its last scythe. Puller raised his rifle and first shot the already brittle scythe, breaking it in two and causing the upper body to fall over. Another bust of rifle fire, Puller still didn't show any signs of fear, penetrated its head, claiming what perverted life it had.

Puller fired again, this time into the body before walking up to it and giving its cracked head a good kick.

"Like I said, they all squish just the same."


	8. Chapter 8

Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 7

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"How are they," he asked as he looked down to the forms of several people laying on the beds in the Medical Bay of _Dark_ _Knight_.

"Hard to tell, Admiral," was the answer as Commander Dr. Mathew Wills looked down at the small holographic display only he was able to see." If it gives you any relief, a good number of Technomages and others with psychical abilities are pretty much in the same condition."

Admiral Tenchi Masaki frowned.

"It doesn't," he noted sowhat dryly as he reached out towards the cabbit that was laying on the chest of Ryoko.

Of all the members of his family, pretty much everyone in this room save for Dr. Wills, Ryo-Ohki was besides him the only one not in this coma like state.

"Meow," the cabbit said as she looked at him and he scratched her neck.

"I'm sure she comes bouncing back in the next few hours," he said with a sigh.

"I sure hope that she does," Dr. Wills noted." Otherwise I fear for the kid."

Tenchi let his eyes drop to the very visible bulge of Ryoko's stomach area and than looked over to Miko, who was laying in the bed next to get mother.

"Are you sure about that?" he wondered and absentmindedly scratched Ryo-Ohki as he sat down on the bec next to Ryoko.

Dr. Wills looked back at his display and shook his head.

"No," he admited." The only person who would be able to tell anything about her for sure is currently busy to smack some sense into her sister."

Tenchi snorted. Wills was right, Washuu was the one who had all but created Ryoko. She would know what was wrong, but, as just about anyone knew, she was still back in their old universe and wouldn't come after them for some time, especially since no one knew how different the time dilatation between the two universes were.

Washuu herself had said so when she had developed the plan to transport the whole solar system into another universe, with the help of the TIT and the Woven Fate Guild. It could be days for them befor she would follow, but also centuries and millenia.

He once again looked around in the room and at the others.

"How about Setsuna and the twins?"

"Stable as far as I can tell. Some sort of shock for their telepathic centers."

Tenchi nodded and for the n-th time in the last century he wondered why a definitive lesbian like Setsuna 'insisted' in having her fun with him, a male. One of those times had let her end up with the twins, who were coming after their mother, through Tenchi was glad that at least Shinji was more coming after his father. Both were P14 rated, Shinji had an additional telekinetic ability, where Ryoga could teleportation, sometimes rather randomly at that. Had been quite the surprise when he had ended up in Nathan without knowing what had happened.

Tenchi snorted, causing Dr. Wills to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He shook his head in return to the raised eyebrow.

"Nothing, Commander," he said and sighed again.

By now two of his kids had their own kids and they were also aboard, with their partners. With now seven kids of his own and two, okay five woman if you counted his ship, one avatar and Setsuna, who were his lovers, through not wives, he should have settled down sowhat. It was quite the opposite actually.

The fact that his family was expanding quite nicely, he wanted to do more to protect them. He was just glad that he had managed to get them on _Dark_ _Knight_ before the transfer. Through even the Washuu-enhanced bio-Warlock had problems with the new environment of this reality.

DK was barely able to control herself at the moment and had to heavily relay on her crew, while her avatars had gone into a coma.

Again he breathed through and slowly stood up from his place next to Ryoko and stroked her chin for a moment.

"Please notify me as soon as their situation changes."

Dr. Wills nodded and Tenchi slowly left the Medical Bay. For a moment he wondered if Seina had the same problems with his wives and extended family. On the other hand, he was pretty sure that they were doing something else, most likely in that really really really large bed of theirs.

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The next Tenchi knew was him standing in a large field of white. Rather chaotic white, and for a moment he wondered how pure white could be chaotic. It wasn't as if he could see any differences in the white itself, just that it was chaotic, somehow.

He frowned as he looked around. Yes, something was not quite right here. One moment he was leaving the Med Bay and the next moment he was standing here.

After a moment his eyes fell on a dark spot that slowly came closer and turned into the shape of a man. Said man slowly, well, became more solid as he came closer and after a few moments Tenchi noted that what he had thought to be clothing became a suit of rather bulky golden armor that reminded him of European medieval armor. Only the head of the man was uncovered by the armor and he appeared to be rather classical greek.

From the size of the head compared to the suit of armor, Tenchi noted that he was of more average height. Compared to Tenchi himself the man would still be a head taller than him without the armor.

Tenchi crossed his arms as he looked at the man. There was an aura of power coming from the man, something that would have caused many other people to stare in awe at the man, but Tenchi was used to be surrounded by people who were powerful, his family. Washuu had also told him that he was some sort of higher being himself, not 'just the avatar of Tsunami', but he frankly didn't care much about that fact. He just wanted to live a sowhat normal life.

The aura of the man, combined with the golden armor caused Tenchi to chuckle a little. He had been one of the first people to get the briefing material about the new universe they were in and had used the time to download a little more information about it. Somewhere in the back of his mind he noted that he would have to thank Washuu for that specially modified com-implant.

The man stopped in front of Tenchi and he was forced to look up to the currently several heads taller man, noting that the armor was very detailed and looked very sturdy. But it still didn't look like something you would wear in a fight. The massive sword was also noted and Tenchi wondered how it would do against the Tenchi-ken that was hanging on his own belt.

"The God-Emperor of Mankind, I presume," Tenchi said after a few moments of mutual measuring between him and the armored man. "As far as I know you should be sitting in that Golden Throne of yours on 'Holy Terra'."

The man raised an eyebrow.

"And this should be the mental side of the Warp than."

"You are well informed," the man said.

"You tend to live longer if you are well informed. Especially with a Tyranid Hive Fleet in your system."

The presumed GEoM raised the other eyebrow.

"I did wonder what that Warp Shadow was."

"About half a million, give or take a few thousand, Tyranid Hive Ships, going after an Eldar Craftworld."

The golden armored man blinked. Than he blinked again.

"Okay, that is bad."

Tenchi narrowed his eyes.

"It seems that you seem to be a Master of Understatement additionally to being a God."

Tenchi looked at the man in front of him. If the informations from Games Workshop were correct...

Okay, the situations just became more surreal than before. The Pentagon was relaying on informations from a company that produced Board and Role Playing Games. Than Tenchi remembered that he had a whole collection of novels by Tom Clancy, with Jack Ryan and John Clarke as main characters. And in his home universe they had turned out to be very real.

Anyway, if the informations from Games Workshop were correct, the real GEoM would deny to be a god.

The reaction of the man was interesting. The armor all but disappeared, replaced by not much else than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, while the mans shoulder slumped a little and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm not a god," the man said and moved a hand to massage his temples and than muttered something under his breath. "Damned Word Bearers."

Tenchi chuckled.

"So you are the God Emperor of Mankind," he noted with a wry smirk.

"Not that I ever really wanted to be," the GEoM noted. "Would you believe if I told you that I just wanted to life a normal life with a wife, many kids and a small farm?"

Tenchi laughed.

"Without a doubt," he said. "I wanted pretty much the same. Get a nice wife, work for a nice life and the like. Than I just had to get curious..."

The GEoM laughed.

"Speaking of being curious," he said and looked at Tenchi. "I'm curious about you too. It doesn't happen every day that a whole solar system with about seventy billion souls just appears out of nowhere. It send a rather heavy quake through the..."

"Force?" Tenchi asked with a raised eyebrow and the GEoM blinked again.

Than he laughed out loud.

"Been millennia since I last heard that one," he said and shook his head. "But pretty much."

Than his face sobered.

"And I'm not the only one who has noticed it."

"I'm sure," Tenchi said and sighed. "The other bad guys besides the Tyranids."

The GEoM raised an eyebrow and sighed.

"Well, not all are the bad ones."

Tenchi snorted.

"You might be a good guy, but this universe is pretty much locked in an eternal war. And I know what war does to people."

"True..."

They looked at each other for a longer time.

"I should go back into the land of the living," Tenchi noted. "I have a ship to command and a family to worry about."

The GEoM nodded.

"I hope we can talk again sooner or later. Its refreshing to have someone to talk to without getting worshiped by yes-sayers any possible moment."

Tenchi chuckled.

"Sometime."

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Tenchi blinked as he was back in his body.

"Are you okay, Admiral?" he heard the voice of Dr. Wills behind him.

Tenchi shook his head clear. The chronometer of his implant wasn't showing more than two seconds difference between the moment the GEoM pulled him into the Warp and now.

He looked at Wills for a moment and wanted to say something, but than he shook his head again.

"Nothing," he said after a moment. "Through you could get me some Aspirin."

Somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear the GEoM chuckle.

"We got a hard time before us. And I guess I'll get quite a few headaches."


End file.
